A Seamstress Wants to Learn Esperanto

A Seamstress Wants to Learn Esperanto | YIVO Institute for Jewish Research | The Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Collections Project

May 1, 2017

The publication of Esther Schor's Bridge of Words: Esperanto and the Dream of a Universal Language occasioned this excavation from the YIVO archives.

This application for registration in an Esperanto course offered in the 1930s in Vilna (Wilno) by VILBIG (Vilna Jewish Education Society) was filled out by Tsile Lyubitsh, a young lingerie seamstress. Born in 1911, she was a member of the first generation to have attended one of the new secular Yiddish schools that were established in the wake of World War II.

What motivated Tsile to want to learn Esperanto? One possible clue comes from the memoir of a young Jewish man in Kielce, born in the same year at Tsile. A. Greyno, as he signed his submission to an autobiography contest sponsored by YIVO in the 1930s, was from a poor family. Like Tsile, he was a garment worker, and in his case, a trade unionist. He also dreamed of a world without borders, but more specifically, of a unified world proletariat, and had found a socialist Esperanto organization with which to affiliate [....]

Thank you, YIVO! See also the YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe:

Bialystok
Belmont, Leo
Braun, Mieczysław
Gorshman, Shira
Korczak, Janusz
Tuwim, Julian
Zamenhof, Ludwik
Zaretski, Ayzik

Marjorie Boulton: 90-jaraĝa en 2014

Jen malnova novaĵo sed atentinda: raporto kun pluraj fotoj pri festo ĉe Oxford por literaturologo kaj esperantista verkistino Marjorie Boulton (naskiĝinta la 7-an de majo 1924):

Marjorie Boulton: 90-jaraĝa (La Brita Esperantisto, aŭtuno 2014)

John Wilkins' 17​th​-Century Moon Mission

I have blogged about this before, once in Esperanto, once in English. These historical tidbits keep getting rediscovered, this time by one of my favorite enterprises, Atlas Obscura:

The 17​th​-Century Moon Mission That Never Got Off the Ground 
by NATALIE ZARRELLI,
Atlas Obscura, May 03, 2017
(Dr. John Wilkins’ lunar ambitions were a little too lofty.)

Wilkins' ideas were a combination of forward-thinking scientific and technological notions and faulty speculation. His conception of space travel is outlined here. His creation of a universal language is also noted, more than once.  Here is a tidbit new to me:

' A century later, some of Wilkins’ eclectic passions were the butt of small jokes; in a 1784 letter, historian Horace Walpole wrote: “I discovered an alliance between Bishop Wilkins’s art of flying, and his plan of universal language; the latter of which he no doubt calculated to prevent the want of an interpreter when he should arrive at the moon.” '

Let me repeat a few relevant links (see my Esperanto post for non-English links):

By Wilkins:

“A Journey to the Moon Possible” [from The Discovery of a New World (1638)], in English Prose: Selections with Critical Introductions by Various Writers and General Introductions to Each Period; Vol. II. Sixteenth Century to the Restoration; edited by Henry Craik (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916).

The Discovery of a World in the Moone: Or, A Discovrse Tending To Prove That ’Tis Probable There May Be Another Habitable World In That Planet. Printed by E.G. for Michael Sparke and Edward Forrest, 1638. 

By someone else:

Ballad of Gresham College (1663) 

Karinthy en Literatura Foiro (2)

Mi jam afiŝis pri la enhavo de Literatura Foiro n-ro 286, aprilo 2017, kies precipa temo estas Frigyes Karinthy. Jen la kovrilo:

William Auld: “Striptease” ("Incitnudiĝo")

William Auld (1924-2006) was one of Esperanto's most important poets and literary advocates, the leading figure of his generation. I have always found his social-critical poems to be the most memorable. This poem appeared in his 1969 collection of poems Humoroj (Moods), in which he declared himself to be writing more personally (and less politically) than before, but even personal poems inevitably reflect on the state of society. This one is clearly a social commentary:

"Incitnudiĝo" de/by William Auld, with “Striptease,” English translation / angla traduko de/by Roy McDonald

Here Auld provides a harsh take on the patrons of strip clubs in his social environment. I never forgot it after reading it over 45 years ago.

The word "Incitnudiĝo" is a compound word coined by Auld, consisting of the morphemes incite + naked + becoming + noun, characterizing what "stripping" is and characteristic of the creative use of Esperanto's expressive capability via the free creation of compounds.

An English translation was published in Star in a Night Sky: An Anthology of Esperanto Literature, edited by Paul Gubbins (London: Francis Boutle Publishers, 2012), a huge compendium of English translations of Esperanto originals. Here it is.

Leendert Cornelis Deij: "Al la Juda Foririnto" / "To the Jew Who Walked Away"

This post commemorates the Holocaust Days of Remembrance in 2017. Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah) marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Let us remember also that all of Zamenhof's children were murdered by the Nazis, and Esperanto was targeted as a Jewish conspiracy.

For decades this original Esperanto Holocaust-related poem has been my favorite on the theme of the Shoah. (I discovered some excellent Hungarian Holocaust poetry--some of which also has Esperanto translations--last year, but that is another story.) An English translation received a commendation in a British literary competition. I have reported on the poem, the poet, and the translation on this blog several times previously. I finally obtained the English translation, which I have added to the Esperanto original:

"Al la Juda Foririnto" / "To the Jew Who Walked Away"
by Leendert Cornelis Deij with English translation by Elizabeth Stanley

Note also William Auld's English translation:

Al la juda foririnto / To the Jewish Departed / Al judío que marchó
English translation by William Auld, literal Spanish translation by Fátima Maritela Marinera

Note that I have previously misspelled Deij's middle name, which should read ‘Cornelis’. ‘Leendert Cornelis Deij’ also appears under the names ‘Leen Deij’ and ‘Lodewijk Cornelis Deij’. When I figure out how to correct the subject heading, I will alter it to ‘Leendert Cornelis Deij’.

See also these web pages/sites:

• Star in a Night Sky (book’s web site)
• Star in a Night Sky: An Anthology of Esperanto Literature (publisher’s web site)
• Leendert Deij - Vikipedio
• Leendert Deij (OLE)
• La muelejo de Leen Deij (Deij's stillborn blog / blogo mortnaskita)

Aleksandr Logvin (1903 - 1980): 3 poemoj

Antaŭ jardekoj mi akiris kaj legis la poemaron Sur la vivovojo: poemoj de Aleksandr Logvin, kun antaŭparolo de Ferenc Szilágyi (La Laguna: J. Régulo, 1964; Stafeto: Beletraj kajeroj; 24) kaj relegis ĝin kelkfoje poste.

Post jaroj, mi ne povas raporti multon el la enhavo. Mi trovis la jenajn tri poemojn en la fantom-interreto (archive,org) kaj re-enretigis ilin kune:

“Plej sinceraj la versetoj pri la verdaj revuetoj” / “Kie Lermontov duelis...” / “Rekviemo” de Aleksandr Logvin

Ĉiuj tri estas omaĝoj: la unua, leĝera laŭdo de la diverslanda Esperanto-gazetaro, la dua pri la rusa poeto Miĥail Lermontov, la tria pri Kálmán Kalocsay ĵus post ties morto.

Jen du pluaj retligoj:

Aleksandr Logvin - Vikipedio

Aleksandr Porfirjeviĉ Logvin (OLE)